Action Module
1. Ways -
Ask the client for many different ways of taking action. She needs to realize an abundance of things one can do. It doesn't matter if they are silly or impossible or realistic and practical. Just get a lot of them.
"Tell me some ways of taking action"
2. Decision #
The need to make only "correct" decisions will hold a person back from acting. No decision is 100% correct. Or, we could say that ALL decisions are correct in their own way. At any rate, it would be useful, both to discuss this with the client, but also to exercise her in making decisions without having a lot of baggage attached to them.
"Make a decision"
3. Activity Alignment $
Do an activity alignment on main areas of the clients life or work.
- Basic Intention
- Desired Objectives
- Overall Plan
- Ideal State of Affairs
- Tangible Output
- Quantification
- Detail Projects
- Daily Actions
- Actual State of Affairs
4. Strategies -
Examine the person's strategies for taking action. What does she do before she acts? How does she decide when to act? Get precise perceptual distinctions and so forth. Improve the strategy if appropriate.
"How do you know when to act?"
5. Breaks -
Find out what she does in-between actions. Is there a need for breaks? What is she doing in those breaks that is necessary? What would be missing if she didn't have those breaks. Work on consolidating any polarities so that she can do things at the same time.
6. Meaningless #
The need for doing only things that are logical and correct will hamper the person's ability to act. To be free and powerful one would need to also be able to act in the absence of good reasons. Practice having the client do "meaningless" things. Like stand on her head or speak to the chair, or something. Most likely she will be silly about doing anything that she can't back up analytically, but that is what we need to work out of her.
"Do something meaningless"
7. Do Something #
Get the client to pick something she would like to have happen. Then, repeatedly ask her to DO something to bring that about. She might be puzzled at first, or insist that there is nothing she can do right here. Insist that she does it anyway. She must be able to at least sit down and write things up, go and make a phone call, or just jump up and down. The idea is to go beyond excuses for not doing anything to the realization that one can always do something. All kinds of bad feelings might come up, and you might deal with them with semantic processing, or you might just insist on her doing it anyway. Don't be too helpful on suggesting what that might be.
"What would you like to do/make happen?"
"Do something about it" (repeatedly)
8. Take Action $
Go through with the client her private life and get her to take action on anything that is not moving. Preferably do it in her actual living or business space. Like, go through whatever is lying on her desk, get her to either handle it, delegate it, file it, or trash it. Then go on to bigger cycles in her life. Find out what she is not taking a decision on, what is on hold because she doesn't know or hesitates to act on it. Get her to act on it.
9. Shouldn't have done -
One reason for holding oneself back from acting, is that one has done things in the past that didn't come out well, or that "proved" that one should have prepared better, or something. Examine such occurrences. Get all the details. Also, preferably add any missing resources, reframe etc. Move towards the willingness to take action, even though one might do something wrong. The mistakes are part of life, something to learn from. Handle any reasons for withholding action that you run into.
"What have you done that you shouldn't have done?"
10. Harmful acts -
Go through anything the person might have done that she considers harmful. That is also a big reason for holding oneself back from acting. If one has hurt somebody one might well stay away from acting in that area again. Be aware that no action in itself is "bad". All we are addressing here is what the person might have attention on that she feels guilty about. Whatever she did that transgressed some moral code doesn't matter here, unless she holds herself back because of it. Be sure to always get underlying positive intentions, to reframe anything to a positive direction, to integrate split polarities.
"Have you hurt anybody?"
"Have you destroyed anything?"
"Have you harmed a good cause?"
"Have you mistreated somebody?"
"Have you let somebody down?"
"Have you failed somebody's trust?"
"Have you weakened a group?"
"Have you hurt yourself?"
"Have you made somebody feel bad?"
"Have you failed to take action?"
"Have you damaged property?"
"Have you said something wrong?"
"Have you taken advantage of somebody?"
"Have you damaged a subject?"
"Have you failed to predict something?"
"Have you not planned something well enough?"
"Have you failed to know?"
"Have you failed to perceive?"
"Have you failed to communicate something?"
"Have you acted without thinking?"
"Have you taken something for granted?"
"Have you done something you shouldn't have?"
11. Holding Back -
A person might hold herself back from acting for all kinds of reasons. She might not even know. At any rate, it is good to examine. Maybe we need to add some resources, maybe we need to reframe something.
"Are you holding yourself back?" Why? How?
"Do you have reasons not to act?"
12. Action Part -
Check if the person is missing the part of her that takes action. It might have been lost at some point. At any rate, we better find out what it takes to get it back. Do soul retrieval.
13. Polarities -
Most people will change between action and inaction. They will be particularly active in certain situations and particularly inactive in others. Examine it as a polarity. What qualities and experiences do they have in one mode that they don't have in the other. Do polarity integration.
14. Unwanted Feelings -
Check what unwanted feelings the client has in connection with taking action. Do Re-Experiencing to clear them.
"Are there any unwanted feelings connected with taking action?"
15. Requirements -
Find out what is needed before the person can act. Are there some special conditions or requirements that need to be met. What is the ideal state of affairs for taking action. What is missing in that? Add resources, visualize the components coming together, or reframe or re-experience them if they are unreasonable.
"What do you need before you can take action?"
16. Consequences -
Explore the consequences of taking action. Maybe there are unpleasant future incidents that the person doesn't want to face. Use re-experiencing to resolve them.
"What could happen if one acted?"
17. Waiting -
If the person is waiting for something and therefore not doing anything, let's find out what it is so we can do something about it/
"Is there something you are waiting for?" What?
18. Other-determined -
Maybe the person's ability to act is tied to somebody else. Maybe she perceives somebody else as being in charge, or it depends on some actions another will do. Examine it and free it up. She ought to have the resources by herself.
"Is somebody or something else deciding whether you act or not?"
19. No Space -
Action takes some space to happen in. If the client perceives that there is no space, then no wonder nothing is happening. Use various imagination processes to increase the abundance of space.
"Do you not have space to act in?"
20. No Time -
Action is something that is happening over time, during a certain time period. If one doesn't feel one has the time, then nothing is going to happen. Actions generally aren't instant, they require a succession of steps. Work with the person's perceptions and ideas, do re-experiencing, soul retrieval, polarity integration, or whatever.
"Do you not have time to act in?"
21. Too busy -
That sounds silly, but it is quite common that people don't get anything done because they are so busy doing things. That of course needs to be reframed so she will realize that she already IS doing things. Then it becomes a matter of choice, and of reclaiming one's own power of deciding what to do.
"Are you too busy to act?"
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